Five tips for engaging communities in coastal climate

change adaptation planning

Assoc Prof Claudia Baldwin, University of the Sunshine CoastDr Scott N. Lieske, Lecturer, University of QueenslandKate English, Adjunct Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast

Overview

• Why engage community about climate change adaptation?• Understanding community values• Innovative methods for engagement• Evaluating effectiveness of engagement• 5 tips for engagement on climate change adaptation

Adaptation planning is necessary because…• Climatechangeimpactsareoccurringnowandareprojectedtointensifyovertime(IPCC2014).• Evenifgreenhousegasemissions(GHG)arestabilisedatcurrentlevels,climatechangeimpactswillexacerbateduetothe“lock-ineffect”ofGHGemissions(IPCC2014)• Climatechangeimpactsaffectdifferentcommunitiesindifferentways:longerandmorefrequentheatwaves,incrementalsea-levelrise,changesinprecipitationpatterns.• Localcommunitiesmustbeproactiveinplanningforfutureconsequencesandbudgetingforfuturecosts.Plannedadaptationislessexpensiveandmoreeffectivethanspontaneousorreactiveadaptationinthelongterm(Burton2004).

• Complexdecisionsneedtobemadearoundplannedadaptation(Burton 2004).

Climate change impacts can …

• Affect and disrupt Council infrastructure and assets:• $6B of public infrastructure damaged in 2011/12 Qld floods

• Cost Councils mega-bucks: • $9B by 2020; $40B by 2050 (TCI 2012)

• Affect private sector and individuals e.g. insurance, resilience:• Up to $63B residential building at risk of inundation by 2100 (DCC

2009)

• Place major responsibility on Local Governments for climate proofing their communities

Why engage community about adaptation?

• Effective and enduring responses to climate change require involvement from all sectors of society: government, the private sector and civil society (Moser 2014; Lorenzoni et al. 2007)

• Government actions can be enhanced through valuable local knowledge provided by residents and local organisations, improving the range and selection of adaptive actions (Burton 2004)

• Engagement broadens ownership of actions to adapt to local climatic impacts (Lorenzoni et al. 2007; Leiserowitz et al. 2006)

• Engagement can inform local residents by providing key climate change information relevant to the community’s adaptation efforts (Burton 2004)

Better decisions and shared responsibility = the best outcome

Understanding communityvalues and interests• Assess current community values and interests and build on them to

leverage support for adaptive actions (Burton 2004, Moser 2014; Lorenzoni et al. 2007)

• This requires understanding of cognitive, affective and behavioural elements (Lorenzoni et al. 2007)

• Knowledge: what do community members know about climate change and adaptation

• Emotions: what emotions are associated with climatic impacts• Actions: how do residents currently respond to climatic impacts from

flooding, storm surge, coastal erosion, heatwaves

Innovative methods are needed to …

• Assesscommunityvalues:Evaluatecommunitypositioningonclimatechangebyunderstandingitscitizens’unconsciousthinking,emotionsandrelationshipswithclimatechange

• Enhancepersonal connectivity: Useinteractiveandexperientiallearningtechniques

• Translatetheintangibilityofclimatechangeintorelatable,tangiblecomponents: Usevisualtechniques– 3Dmodellingandvisualisationexercisesenhancedialogueandmakeitreal

Let’s look at some examples …

Interactivemappingofareasofrisk(Grantetal.2015)

Allowsstakeholderstodrawonlocalknowledgeandexperience

Photovoice on map overlay (Grant et al. 2015)

Communityusesownphotostoidentifythreatsandimpacts

Drawsonlocalknowledgeandexperience.

Overlayonamaptoshowthecontext.

3D visualisation (Lieske et al. 2015)

CurrentClimate Year2100StormSurge,RiverineFloodingandSealevelRise

3D visualisation (Lieske et al. 2015)

Localizedfloodinundation:

• current(upperphoto)and

• year2100climate(lower)scenarios.

Freeassociationtechniques(Hollway and Jefferson2008)

• Canbeusedtocapturecitizens’initialperceptionsoflocalclimaticimpacts,currentpreparedness,ideasforadaptiveactionsandwhoisresponsibleforenactment• Initialperceptionsfrom“fastthinking”(Kahneman 2012)provideasnapshotofunderstandingandemotionsreclimatechange

• Situatesinatimeandplace• Canbeanintroductiontosemi-structuredinterviews– i.e.‘slow’analytic

andreflectivethinking• Applicationoftechnique:• ResearchwithNBRBoardparticipantsin2011-12-nearlyhalfassociatedclimatechangewith‘impacts’(mainlyrewatersuchasfloodingandSLR).Whentalkedabout‘causes’and‘responses’,equalsplitbetween‘environmental’(e.g mitigationoradaptation);or‘socio-political’(incl politicalfrustrationandawareness-raising)(English2017).

Evaluating effectiveness of engagement• Wedon’talwaysevaluateourengagementprocesseswell.

• Justas‘climateadaptation’isadynamicprocessthatrequirescontinualevaluationandperiodicreassessment,sodotheaccompanyingengagementprocesses(IPCC2014)

• Goalsettingandmilestonemeasurementscanassistinmeasuringachievementsandanalysingsuccess.Someofthosegoalsandachievementsarerelatedtocommunityacceptanceandcommitmenttoadaptationplanning.

• Successfuladaptationincludesacomprehensivestrategy,encompassingawell-informedcommunitythatembracespersonalresponsibilityandgovernmentandprivatesectorsupportforadaptiveactionsfocusedonadaptationandmitigation(IPCC2014).Weneedtoassesshowwe’regoinginthatregard…

Our 5 tips for adaptation engagement

1. Understand your community and target information to the range of stakeholder groups and individuals.• While information needs to be user friendly, don’t be patronizing. Remember there are

experts in the community too and you should be able to justify your decisions based on good evidence.

2. Use visual methods to make the intangible, tangible.• Explore the increasing range of visual techniques available.

3. Use interactive, experiential learning techniques to assist individuals to personally identify with local climatic impacts.• These can be used with school children as well as adults.

Our 5 tips for adaptation engagement

4. Focus on what we can do, not whether we have a problem.That depletes everyone’s energy and delays a focus on solutions.

5. Use evaluation to improve processes and prove to community and Council that you’ve captured the benefits of engagement.

A well-designed consultation program that builds in evaluation at the start can be cost-effective.

References• Burton, I. 2004. Climate Change and the Adaptation Deficit. Adaptation and Impacts Research Group, Occasional Paper 1. Ottawa: Environment Canada

• Department of Climate Change. 2009. Climate change risks to Australia’s coasts: A first pass national assessment. Retrieved from http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/adaptation/publications/climate-change-risks-australias-coasts.

• English K 2017. Understanding climate change and advancing adaptation in a third sector sustainability organisation. PhD thesis.USC.

• Grant B, Baldwin C, Lieske S, Martin K, 2015, 'Using participatory visual methods for information exchange about climate risk in canal estate communities', Australian Journal of Maritime and Ocean Affairs, vol 7(1): 23-37

• Hollway, W., & Jefferson, T. (2008). Chapter 15. The free association narrative interview method. In L. Given (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 296-315). Sevenoaks, CA: Sage.

• IPCC. 2014. Climate change 2014: Synthesis

• Kahneman, D. 2012. Thinking, fast and slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

• Leiserowitz, A., Kates, R., & Parris, T. 2006. Sustainability values, attitudes and behaviors: A review of multi-national and global trends. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 413-444.

• Lieske S.N., Martin K, Grant B. and Baldwin C. 2015. 'Visualization methods for linking scientific and local knowledge of climate change impacts'. In Planning Support Systems for Smart Cities. Geertman S., Stillwell J., Ferreira J. and Goodspeed R. (eds), Springer, New York, pp.373-389.

• Lorenzoni, I., Nicholson-Cole, S., & Whitmarsh, L. 2007. Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global Environmental Change, 17, 445-459. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.01.004

• Moscovici, S. 2011. An essay on social representations and ethnic minorities. Social Science Information, 50, 442-461. doi:10.1177/0539018411411027

• Moscovici, S. 1984. The phenomenon of social representations. In R. M. Farr & S. Moscovici (Eds.), Social representations (pp. 3-69). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Moser, S. C. 2014. Communicating adaptation to climate change: The art and science of public engagement when climate change comes home. WIREs Climate Change, 5, 337-358. doi:10.1002/wcc.276

• TCI (The Climate Institute), 2012, Coming Ready or Not: Managing climate risks to Australia’s infrastructure, Sydney.